I. Field
The following description relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to frequency hopping for control channels.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as, for example, voice, data, and so on. Typical wireless communication systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, . . . ). Examples of such multiple-access systems may include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and the like. Additionally, the systems can conform to specifications such as third generation partnership project (3GPP), 3GPP long term evolution (LTE), etc.
Generally, wireless multiple-access communication systems may simultaneously support communication for multiple mobile devices. Each mobile device may communicate with one or more base stations via transmissions on forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from base stations to mobile devices, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from mobile devices to base stations. Further, communications between mobile devices and base stations may be established via single-input single-output (SISO) systems, multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, and so forth. In addition, mobile devices can communicate with other mobile devices (and/or base stations with other base stations) in peer-to-peer wireless network configurations.
MIMO systems commonly employ multiple (NT) transmit antennas and multiple (NR) receive antennas for data transmission. The antennae can relate to both base stations and mobile devices, in one example, allowing bi-directional communication between the devices on the wireless network. To communicate data regarding transmission quality (e.g., control data), the devices and/or base stations can utilize a determined portion of bandwidth for transmitting acknowledgements/non-acknowledgements (ACK) and/or channel quality information (CQI). In multiple-access systems such as LTE, the control data is transmitted at either edge of a utilized frequency spectrum, and devices are expected to hop from one end to the other for a given time interval for transmitting the control data. However, where devices in the system communicate at a frequency lower than that specified by the system, such hopping is not easily attained. To compensate, some system configurations are adjusting the frequency capabilities of the devices in the system, but this approach is not always the most efficient or practical.